Mindfulness Yoga Experiences: Oregon Coast Yoga

MINDFULNESS YOGA EXPERIENCES

Northwest Women’s Surf Camps has been offering beach yoga in every camp and retreat event since its inception in 2005. Beach Yoga brings the perfect flow of calm and energy as well as student/coaching connection into each of our events. For 2019, you’ll experience beach yoga in our women’s Day Surf Camps, women’s Surf Weekenders, and NEW women’s Bodyboard Day Camp. At the local Seaside Yoga Studio, you can join Director Lexie Hallahan in her weekly Amrita Mindfulness Yoga classes. See link at bottom of page for Seaside Yoga Studio’s class schedule. Join us in one or many yoga experiences here on the beautiful North Coast of Oregon. Sessions, classes, camps, upcoming workshops and retreats are offered. Experience our unique Mindfulness experiences in this summer’s program, click here.

CUSTOM MINDFULNESS YOGA WORKSHOP OFFERED

Mindfulness is a quality of open, alert, non-judgmental attention directed at our moment-to-moment experience. Mindfulness is the simple act of paying attention to our immediate experience in the here-and-now. In this, it brings us back into the freshness of the moment we are living and temporarily suspends the mind’s mental habit of “past-future-self-and-other”. When given consistent exposure to and practice of mindfulness, the mind-body experiences a “re-wiring” of the habituated pathways of the brain. By doing so, we can then live in the present moment of Now, this reality, instead of trying to change the past with ruminating, habitual thoughts and judgment or experiencing fear, anxiety and apprehension of what has yet to come. Living your life in the present moment opens one up to the vast human experience of being content, calm, tranquil, happy and blissful!

Include this 1.5 hour workshop for your next business conference, family reunion, friend gathering, and special event you’re planning. You’ll explore mindfulness practices on the mat that you can take with you off the mat, to begin to change the natural default and habits of your mind. Meditation, grounding, asana and pranayama practices will be taught and explored. Bring your curiosity, willingness to be open to change and desire for deep connection personally and with community.

Advance planning and notice to the Director Lexie Hallahan is required to book a Mindfulness Yoga Workshop. $35 per participant includes 1.5 hour workshop and packet of class handouts. Some props are available for use. Space can be rented for additional fee, if needed. Email her your request at surfcamps@nwwomenssurfcamps.com or call her at #(503) 440-5782.

DIRECTOR’S YOGIC JOURNEY

In my early 30’s, I began seeking a spiritual path toward spiritual growth and personal discovery. Having been raised Unitarian, I had an understanding of world religions as reflected in practices and faiths from a social justice perspective.

In 1996, I started taking yoga classes in Cannon Beach, Oregon with a wonderfully wise young teacher named Sarahjoy Marsh. She was the Founder of Living Yoga and is now the Founder/Director of the DAYA Foundation, a nonprofit yoga center in Portland, that delivers accessible yoga alternatives and develops yoga therapy curriculum to train allied health professionals, yoga teachers and students. For the last 24 years, I've had the opportunity to study with her in ongoing classes, numerous workshops, retreats and two formal teacher trainings.

My first teacher training was in 2004 in Anusara Yoga. Anusara is a modern Hatha Yoga system founded by John Friend. Its philosophy is one of "opening to grace", "following the heart" and remembering and celebrating life as a gift! At the time of this training until September, 2014, I was deeply committed to the primary care of my mentally ill mother. I started NW Women's Surf Camps in 2005 and began teaching Anusara beach yoga at all of our events. Needing to keep my schedule flexible to respond to and care for my mother, I did not take on the commitment to weekly studio classes until 2016 after completing my second training with Sarahjoy in Amrita Yoga.

Amrita is a type of Vinyasa yoga with influences from Ayurveda, neuroscience, yoga philosophy, pranayama and mindfulness. It is taught in alignment with the rhythms of nature and in harmony with the changing of the seasons as well as with the time of day and one's own life-cycle.

Throughout my journey with yoga, life events have been catalysts for my personal growth and spiritual development. During the sixteen years of caregiving for my parents, it was my practice and commitment to yoga and meditation that kept me afloat in my personal buoyancy and resiliency; my practice centered me to trust that in the Universe, "All is well". My practice grounded me to the sense of one-ness that I hold close to this day.

My dharma or, life's purpose, is to teach. I will continue to share Amrita yoga, which translates to "the divine nectar" in Sanskrit, with my coastal and world community. My vision is to bring the yogic and spiritual vibration on the North Coast to a higher healing resonance that touches all parts of our community, especially including those who are marginalized, shunned and isolated. Namaste